


Reflect on Love and Loss and New Friends

by CasterShell



Series: Loyal Companions [2]
Category: Ghost of Tsushima (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Drinking Etiquette, Drunkenness, Emotional Constipation, Everyone wants to do Jin Sakai, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Healthy polyamours relationships, Hot Springs & Onsen, Intimacy, Jin Sakai is clueless, M/M, Mild Language, Nudity, Part 3 spoilers, Past Character Death, Polyamorous Relationships, Resolved-ish Emotional Tension, Sharing a Bed, Spoilers, dudes being dudes, hangovers, past animal death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:19:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26225542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CasterShell/pseuds/CasterShell
Summary: Jin is in a hot spring, and as one does he reflects, this time on love and loss.  He's dealt with a lot of loss.  But now he's not alone.  Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on the quality of the sake and the company.  Either way the company will get his mind off of his sorrows.This is technically a sequel to A Samurai's Steed but can be read independently. Title and rating have been updated to reflect the second chapter.
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Series: Loyal Companions [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1904707
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There are Act 3 spoilers in this fic. The end of Act 2/start of Act 3 is heavily implied/referenced and events from mid-chapter 3 are mentioned. If you want to avoid spoilers please play through the opening of Heart of the Jito.
> 
> For some reason Jin being sad speaks to me. I think I ship Jin/Therapy at this point, he really needs to talk about all the trauma he's had to deal with. This fic can be read as two dudes being dudes or as pre-slash, totally up to the reader.

There Jin was drinking

Warm sake in a hot spring

Reflecting alone

It was dark out and Jin was drinking warm sake in a hot spring while the moon’s light glinted off the last of winter’s snow. The water was warm against his skin. And despite being near enough to the small refugee camp that he could leave Kaze and his belongings there the spring was secluded enough that he was sure of being undisturbed. That was why he could let his mind wander. Except of course his mind was wandering to places he’d rather avoid… like Kage. His beautiful strong Kage. And how in those last few moments he’d been so weak. Lying on the road unable to even lift his head. He’d spent everything. Given all his strength to Jin. And in the end Jin had been too weak too. Too weak to stop sooner. Too weak to save Kage. Too weak to end his suffering. Jin had simply held him, tanto forgotten in its sheath as he sobbed into the fur of Kage’s cheek while his horse blew bloody froth from his nostrils with his final breaths. Jin was still there in that moment, at the side of the road with bloodied aching hands and feet and back from hauling the stones for Kage’s cairn. 

Jin had already finished the full bottle of Kenji’s finest. Maybe that was why he heard the crunching of leaves and snow before he sensed someone was approaching. Jin turned, ready to grab his blade and defend himself, but it was only the horse trader. The man held up his hands like a peace offering, a satchel of fresh medicine in one and a full bottle of sake in the other.

“My friend said you’d be here. He also said last time he ran in to you he complimented you on your worthy horse.” The horse trader chuckled to himself as he approached the spring and put down his offering within easy reach.

Jin looked up at him and shifted over in the water to make space. He wasn’t averse to company and, his instincts whispered, he could take the horse trader in a fight if he had to. Having someone else around would keep his thoughts away from Kage. And loss in general.

“Ahhh, that’s a serious expression.” The horse trader said, stripping down to nothing, “You look like someone shot your horse.”

Jin froze, choking on air. The horse trader couldn’t have known. Could he? Would his uncle’s men have bragged about…

The horse trader sighed as he slipped in to the water, but it didn’t sound like satisfaction from the heat. “Damn. This is why I work with animals. Never had a skill for people.” The horse trader leaned back against the rocks, letting his head lol over to meet Jin’s eyes, “Want to, uh, talk about it?”

Jin stared incredulously. Then he laughed, from the absurdity of it. That was the most socially awkward way to inquire after someone he’d ever heard.

“I brought more sake, it’s Kenji’s special recipe.” The horse trader displayed the bottle with pride.

Jin laughed harder. He couldn’t explain why it was so funny. Oh, right, he was drunk.

“Have you met him? His stuff’s good.” The horse trader said, completely oblivious to Jin’s mirth.

Jin kept laughing and then it turned in to sob and, damn, he hadn’t been this drunk around anyone in far too long, he couldn’t get control of himself. The last time was when he was with… Ryuzo. Jin stopped actively sobbing and dunked his head underwater to hide the tears. Maybe if he stayed down here long enough he’d drown. Be able to hide from his shameful display. After a few long moments the pressure of water on his face and the slight burn in his lungs from not breathing was able to calm him, just a little. Jin brought his head out of the spring with a deep gasp of air and shook the water from his hair. He blinked water out of his eyes, and it most certainly was water and not the remnants of tears.

The horse trader held a hand up to shield his face from the spray, eyes smiling as he watched Jin settle back against the smooth stone edge of the spring. The horse trader said nothing, politely pretending Jin’s outburst hadn’t occurred. They rested in the luxurious heat for a few long moments. Jin began to let his mind wander again, even closing his eyes contentedly when he felt the water rippling against his side as his bathing companion shifted. Jin opened his eyes to see the horse trader half leaning out of the spring, grabbing the full sake bottle and Jin’s empty cup.

“Here,” he sighed, “Kenji’s brews are too good to go to waste.” He filled Jin’s cup and placed it carefully on the rocks. 

Jin, remembering his manners, took the bottle and grabbed the horse trader’s empty cup from the ground to fill it. “Kanpai.” He said, lifting his own glass in salute.

They drank. Jin sighed contentedly as he finished his glass. “Kenji really does make the best sake.”

“You know him?” The horse trader asked, leaning against the rocks with one arm up and out of the water already pouring Jin another glass.

“Of course, just like your friend he insulted me as soon as we met, and then he stuffed me in an empty Sake barrel to storm a Mongol fortress.” Jin said and drank the second glass.

Before Jin could even put the cup down the horse trader was again filling it with one hand even as he finished his own glass with the other. “I have to hear the rest of that tale.”

Jin quickly grabbed the bottle and poured for his companion again, “You know, If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to take advantage of me.” He said, pointedly setting the bottle on the rocks.

“Bah, between a wife and lover I’ve already enough; and sake dulls the skills as it stokes desire. No, I’m just paying my tribute to a proper samurai for being my patron.” The horse trader was slurring slightly, weaving in the water just a little as he spoke and grinning contentedly as if he was the height of wit. Though Jin supposed everyone felt like a philosopher at the bottom of Kenji’s sake bottles.

When Jin nearly dunked his cup underwater, he realized some of the weaving was on his part. Damn. Yet another reason to appreciate their spring being so close to camp, he wouldn’t have too far to trip over his own feet on the way to bed. Jin leaned heavily against the rocks as he downed his next glass. Putting it safely atop the flattest one he tried to wave away the horse trader’s eager hand on the bottle. He was most certainly drunker than anticipated. Waving with that hand meant he had to lean away from the wall, which meant he over-leaned. Which meant he slipped. Which meant he fell underwater, again soaking his head.

The trader’s hands were on him, lifting him from under the arms, hot against his skin even in the hot spring’s near scalding waters. “Ha! The noble ghost of Tsushima a lightweight!” he crowed, drink making him far too familiar.

Jin splashed against the hold, his own arms flailing before he leaned in to the supportive arms guiding him back the spring’s edge and that traitorous rock wall. “I,” Jin declared, enunciating carefully so as not to slur, “Am not a lightweight. I just don’t usually drink more than one bottle of Kenji’s sake so quickly.”

“Ooooooh!” the trader gasped as he grasped the empty bottle, “This was Kenji’s too. You lucky dog.” He swayed in the water, nearly falling under himself as he settled back on to the rocks. “The perks of being born a samurai.” He muttered.

“I wasn’t born a samurai.” Jin protested.

“Bah,” the trader scoffed, “You were born to it same as I wasn’t. I’d a head for horses but wasn’t born in to the right family. Best I could hope for was selling the nags and patching them up after idiots run them too hard proving how worthy they are of their swords.”

“I trained, hard.” Jin said flatly.

“So did I. To get where I am. Its why you come to me for advice. A noble samurai, son of the Jito, consorting with a vagrant’s son.” The horse trader slid down until his nose barely cleared the water, keeping himself form saying any more.

“Your birth doesn’t determine your worth.” Jin remembered Ryuzo, so close to becoming a samurai. If fate had only been a little different they could have been as close as brothers. But even when their paths diverted, Jin had still felt so close to his friend and beloved confidant… “Any samurai, no anyone with a brain would trust their frien-craftsman.” Jin slurred, grabbing the horse trader’s shoulder for emphasis.

The trader laughed harshly. “Oh yes. That’s why I’ve never pulled half a dozen onions out of a horse’s ass. Because samurai listen to tradesfolk.” He shrugged of Jin’s hand to sit higher in the water and pour himself another cup.

“You…what?” Jin’s head swirled with alcohol, heat, and the absurdity of that statement, “You what?”

“Old folk medicine. No don’t listen to the man who knows horses, listen to noble lady whatsertits friend’s mom’s old noble people horse remedy.” The trader gesticulated sharply, splashing water about them.

“Anyone who’d ignore you about horses is a fool.” Jin stated adamantly taking his companion’s hand to stop the splashing and reaching with his other hand to pour another glass of sake in commiseration.

“Ah but they were samurai, so they were in the right. And when I couldn’t save their horse of course it was my fault even though they waited ‘till the thing was rolling to even call for me.”

Jin filled his own glass and handed them both to his friend. Were they friends now? Yes. Jin had decided they were friends. “Were they on Tsushima?”

The trader laughed, pushing Jin’s own glass back at him. “Not Tsushima. Ha. What? Would you defend my honor?”

“Yes” Jin stated adamantly. He put his hand on his friend’s shoulder “Yes I would.”

“You, are an interesting samurai.” the trader laughed.

“I’m the ghost.” Jin said proudly, puffing out his chest, but ducking back down when the cold night air hit bare nipples that had previously been covered by warm water.

The trader poured another glass out for Jin. Jin could see the bottle was much lighter now by how easily it rose and fell in his friend’s hand. How much of Kenji’s best had they downed? Jin didn’t protest when the cup was passed in to his hand, the cold night air against his chest had sobered him quickly.

“To the ghost, the people’s hero, the best damned samurai in Tsushima. Kanpai.” The trader toasted him and downed what was left in his glass in one shot.

Jin felt very cold, and his eyes burned. He sunk further down in the water so it was just his head and hand sticking out but he still felt cold. This trader, a common man, was so much like Ryuzo. His friend Ryuzo. And he’d been betrayed by and betrayed Ryuzo in return. Just like he’d betrayed Kage’s trust. And now here he was, drunk and crying in a hot spring, full of regret at doing his duty to his lord, his uncle; and full of knowledge that running from his deserved consequences had directly killed his Kage. “I’m not…what a samurai should be. A samurai shouldn’t…” shouldn’t feel regret, shouldn’t run, shouldn’t…

“A samurai should and shouldn’t do a lot of things. You’re not like a lot of samurai. I’ve met a lot of samurai. Most of ‘em ‘re assholes. But you Jin, you give a damn. You NAMED your horse. Most of them don’t. You cared about him. And you care about Kaze as much as you bluster on about not feeling.” The trader was looking up at the night sky, completely missing Jin’s internal turmoil.

“I feel like…It’s my fault.” Jin confessed. It was safe, to talk to this man if they weren’t making eye contact.

“It is. You killed him sure as anything.” The trader was still tilting his head back, not looking at Jin. Completely unaware that he and Jin were talking about completely different things. But he was right. Ryuzo, Kage, Jin had most certainly killed them both.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Jin spat before downing the rest of the sake like bitter medicine.

“No. Your horse is dead. Feel however you want about it.” The trader again let his head fall to the side, mussing his hair on the rocks as he met Jin’s eyes.

Yes, the trader didn’t know about Ryuzo. The massive guilt Jin felt for killing his best friend, the man he’d been closer to that anyone. “But it was my fault. If I hadn’t…” If he had been better, done things differently Kage, Ryuzo, his father even, maybe everyone would have lived.

“You’d be dead. And your horse, Kage, he’d be someone else’s at best or food a worst.” The trader again gestured at nothing. He really liked to talk with his hands.

“His death is my fault. I killed him.” Jin said, numbly, not sure which him he was even talking about anymore. There’d been so many. And they all still hurt. But Kage was the most recent. The most fresh, the least healed scar. The one he was most responsible for.

“You’re a samurai, you’ve killed how many?” The trader turned to fully face him. As if he could read and echo Jin’s own mind.

“That’s different. That was people. Combat. This was Kage…” Jin could feel himself tearing up. The sake was strong to make him this maudlin. And over a horse of all things.

“Kage, a nameless Mongol, a renowned foe, what’s the difference, you’ve killed men you’ve known before, haven’t you?”

Ryuzo… “That was different. We’d chosen different paths. All we felt for each other...” Jin sighed, it was still too painful to put in to words, this relationship he’d lost and destroyed with his own hands, “We knew we were setting it aside for what we had to do. He knew what would happen. He knew… He understood death and that our fight would-” Jin paused. That was the difference wasn’t it. “He knew.” Ryuzo understood his death was coming when he stood before Jin that night. His begging, his goading, Ryuzo knew. Like Jin he too saw the stony path of their shared past that led them to that moment. But Kage…

Kage.

“He trusted me.” Jin choked back a sob. “He trusted me and I drove him to his death. And he did it willingly.” Kage had run, and run, just the slightest press of heels in to ribs and Kage had run until he literally couldn’t, and walked on after that until…

“Remind you of yourself a bit much then?” The horse trader hadn’t moved, still staring in to Jin’s eyes.

“Eh?” Jin sputtered.

“You’re a good man. Better than most samurai.” The horse trader leaned back, “Tales I hear paint the ghost as a Mongol maiming monster…but you… you’re crying over a horse because you feel you betrayed his trust. You’d have let your uncle slaughter you same as your horse let you do to him if our favorite sake brewer hadn’t hauled your sorry carcass out of there. You let a peasant insult your horse to your face and not only do you not kill him, you take his advice. And thank you by the way for not killing my lover for speaking out of turn. Face it Jin, you’re a good, if stupid, man. But as my wife says, the best are.”

“Good, or stupid?” Jin was feeling untethered by praise, numb and drifting, he was most certainly not used to this, was it the sake?

“Both!” The trader splashed water over them both flailing his arms, “Look, you need to stop worrying about what you’re supposed to be. Enjoy what you are. Do your best for who you have.” The trader poked Jin in the chest with each word for emphasis.

“Like Kaze.” Jin thought out loud. He couldn’t change what he’d done. To Kage, to Ryuzo, to his uncle’s trust. But he still had people, friends, at his side.

“Be like him, do better by him, better for him. Yeah, that.” The trader had again apparently read Jin’s mind.

“You’re not much of a poet.” Jin lightly critiqued

“Again my friend, this is why I work with animals. Less criticism.” The trader physically waved away Jin’s comments and tried to pour him another glass from the empty bottle.

Jin laughed, “You’re drunk.”

“And you’re not sobbing over your horse.” The trader stated like he’d achieved some personal victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The horse trader being referred to as 'the horse trader' through the entire fic is intentional. Chapter two has the reveal of his actual name.
> 
> Putting onions up a horse's butt is a real old time-y folk medicine thing, but it does not work so do not do that. Ask any horse vet who's been practicing for a long time and they will tell you stories.
> 
> Pouring the drink for your companion is standard sake drinking etiquette and I am abusing that trope for my own nefarious purposes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Too much sake with his new friend has Jin waking up in bed with a man whose name he doesn't even know. Somehow this is an improvement for him. Jin makes new friends, is oblivious to innuendo, realizes he can open up to people again, and maybe thinks of someone he'd like to be open with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The horse trader wouldn't leave me alone after writing A Samurai's Steed, and Jin needs friends after everything he's been though, so I wrote another chapter. Also, I just had to put "A true samurai needs no cloths" in to a fic. The way I wrote this can be interpreted as platonic or pre-slash, reader's choice.
> 
> Rating was increased to an M just to be on the safe side with all the mostly naked dudes and sexual innuendo.
> 
> See the end of the chapter for additional notes.

Jin and the horse trader settled in to an easy conversation, but between over one and half bottles of Kenji’s best and the nearly scalding hot water from the spring Jin didn’t feel like he was sobering up the longer they went without drink. The stars were becoming slowly blocked by clouds and it was clearly getting late, the horse trader’s head was starting to nod as he drifted in and out of their conversation. Jin grinned to himself, and he called me a lightweight, he though smugly and flicked water in his friend’s face.

“I’m awake!” the horse trader sat up straight and looked around. He held up his hand and even in the dark Jin could see the skin on his fingers was wrinkled from prolonged soaking. Jin held up his own hand and chuckled. Yes, just as wrinkly and yes, still as drunk because he found that funny.

“We should go back to camp.” Jin suggested, elbowing his friend to get him moving. Jin even shifted and began to hoist himself out of the water, leaning too far and toppling forward as his arms refused to cooperate. He squeaked, just a little, when snow hit his bare skin.

The trader laughed while he slightly more steadily climbed out of the spring and used a nearby tree for support as he began drying off in the cold night air. “Dry off before you freeze to death, oh noble samurai.”

“No no,” Jin’s drunken mind decided the only cure for embarrassment was overcompensation, “The cold is… refreshing!” He exclaimed as he quickly dried himself without falling over or using a tree for support, which was cheating by the way. He quickly wrapped his fundoshi and stood proudly, not at all missing the warmth of the spring or regretting his choices in any way.

“Alright, it’s refreshing.” The trader agreed with a laugh as he put on his undergarment, “Now let’s get dressed.”

Jin would not be challenged, “No. A true samurai needs no cloths!” He declared.

“Ok. Well… Get dressed for me? So you don’t die of cold.” The trader tried to hand Jin his cloths and armor.

“We won’t die of cold if we’re fast enough!” Jin grabbed the horse trader’s cloths from the ground, leaving his friend standing in a fundoshi and nothing else, and sprinted for the camp.

“Jin!” The horse trader called after him fruitlessly before realizing Jin wasn’t coming back. Then he began sprinting too. “Jin Sakai, you get back here and get dressed now!”

“You’re not my mother!” Jin laughed out as he ran.

“Jin! You’ll wake the entire camp! At least stop running so you don’t wake everyone up.”

Jin slowed his pace so his friend could catch up. And yes, Jin was right before, they were friends, because with only a few nods of his head the horse trader indicated which tent was his so they could get out of the cold. And miraculously they both made it to the isolated tent on the edge of the camp not only without being seen but without falling over their own feet in the dark. Jin rolled in to the tent like he was dodging under a sword while the horse trader more haphazardly shuffled in, but they were both quietly laughing at their success as they sprawled on the woven tatami floor mat surrounded by their cloths and a single bedroll.

“So,” Jin laughed, “Why here?”

“So you don’t wake up half the camp falling into things, and so you don’t freeze- don’t give me that look I’ve seen how you sleep and leaning against your horse in a fundoshi is how you die of exposure.” The trader shook his head when he finished scolding Jin, “How you haven’t died in your sleep from being rolled on by your horse I will never know.” He threw an arm over his eyes for emphasis.

Jin took his friend’s inattentiveness as an opportunity to steal the pillow from the trader’s bed, taking just the slightest sniff to make sure it was clean before burying his face in it, “I have animal magnetism.” he said in to the fabric, already falling asleep.

With a heavy sigh the horse trader threw a blanket over Jin’s sprawled form before grabbing a second blanket for himself and trying to steal back a corner of his own pillow. “Greedy samurai, think they own everything.” He joked to himself before falling in to his own alcohol assisted slumber.

Jin awoke slowly. He was tucked under warm blankets, comfortable, mostly naked, and pressed against the side of someone warm and comfortable and also mostly naked. His head ached but if the way he woke up was any indication, it had been a good night. Whoever his bedmate was had their arm thrown under Jin’s pillow while he spooned their side. Their other arm was a comfortable weight across his ribs, his own arm snaking around it to rest on their soft stomach. And their other arm was also warm and comforting over his neck; gentle pressure against the top of his shoulder and a calloused hand playing with the hairs that had come loose at the nape of his neck.

Wait.

Jin’s mind sharpened and his hips stopped the lazy grind he hadn’t even realized they’d been doing against his companion’s side.

One, two, three; people didn’t have three arms.

Jin bolted upright, the arm on his neck left him immediately but the arm on his chest pressed him back down and the groggy voice of the horse trader reached his ears. “Jin, go back t’ sleep. ‘R a’ least don’t move so loud.”

“Well it’s what you deserve for drinking that much.” A new but tantalizingly familiar voice chided.

Jin struggled against the weight on his chest to lift his head up and he recognized the man who had directed him to the horse trader in the first place also shifting upwards. The horse trader’s lover, his mind helpfully recalled that bit of information but not the majority of last night. His hair was mussed from sleep as he ran a hand through it and looked down at Jin lying almost naked and in bed with another man’s lover.

“Will you both go back to sleep? My head hurts.” The horse trader whined and finally lifted his arm off Jin’s chest, curling in to his lover who was now struggling to sit up further and giving him no sympathy.

“Get off me and wake up. You’re lucky you brought a handsome bedmate or I’d have woken you up with the sun like you should have been.” The commoner wriggled and attempted to pry the horse trader off his midsection. 

Jin nearly choked in surprise when his friend gave up on his lover and instead rolled over to cling tightly around his stomach and curl against him. “Uh…” Jin was at a loss for words.

“Shush and be a good pillow.” The horse trader grumbled in to Jin’s hip, then tried to wrestle him back down to a prone position.

“Oh yes,” the commoner sarcastically snarked, “now you’re replacing me. Well your wife will be pleased; a samurai is certainly an upgrade from a farmer.” He exaggeratedly crossed his arms and glared down at the man clinging to Jin like a leech.

“Technically I’m not a samurai anymore.” Jin tried to defuse the situation. He couldn’t remember enough of last night to dispute any other part of the commoner’s statement.

“Ah! And he’s humble too! Yes, Hanami will love him.” The commoner waved his arms to gesture broadly at Jin while talking, and Jin could remember the horse trader doing something similar while talking last night. He wondered which one of them had picked up that particular habit from the other.

“We didn’t fuck, Tadasuke.” The horse trader snapped, lifting his head from Jin’s midsection to be clearly heard.

“Yes Naogo, you just got completely smashed with the handsome man you’ve been flirting with for the past six months under the guise of fattening up his horse and DIDN’T smash that ass.”

Jin’s head was lightly swimming even though he was sober. Handsome. Flirting. Smashing. Naogo. He knew he wasn’t unattractive but hearing it was still a pleasure. Though the most interesting bit of information was “Naogo.”

Both men looked at him in confusion, one from across the bedroll one from nearly in his lap.

“Ah, we never really did do proper introductions did we, Naogo…san.” Jin explained, using the opportunity to test out the newly discovered name. Was san necessary? He had slept with the man.

“Wait, you took him to bed without even knowing his name?” the commoner laughed, “How fast are you?”

“I’m not. It’s not like that!” Jin protested. The rapid-fire conversation was banishing the last of sleep from his mind and making him remember that he would most certainly feel it if they had ‘smashed’ as Tadasuke so crudely put it. He still didn’t know what the previous night had been about then. What were the horse trader’s motives? Surely Naogo hadn’t just been trying to make him feel better?

Tadsuke smiled and waved his hand placatingly, “I know, I know! I’m just joking. Naogo wouldn’t even bed me until he’d told his wife and gotten her permission. It almost felt like a marriage interview.”

“Your wife knows?” Jin asked, surprised. Samurai could have dalliances but they hardly made their affairs public knowledge.

“Why not? It’s only fair she have a say, we are married after all.” Naogo said as if he was talking about something as common as the weather.

“She even writes me letters now. ME.” Tadasuke leaned forward to emphasize his point, “Asking after him! Sometimes she’ll even write me instead of Naogo because I’m always in one place and know where to find him!”

“You make it sound so important. It’s banalities like ‘make sure he’s eating well’ as if I wasn’t a grown man.” Naogo sulked and further wrapped himself around Jin, completely disproving his point.

“Well I can think of a good salty meaty breakfast, right lord Sakai?” Tadasuke planted a quick kiss on his lover’s hair only to be pushed away by Naogo’s hand in his face.

“Enough, you’ll embarrass him.” Naogo released Jin from his grip and finally sat up.

“Samurai get around! I’ve heard the talk.” Tadasuke make to elbow Jin conspiratorially but was intercepted.

Naogo again shoved Tadsuke away and chided him, “You’re one to talk, you’re all talk, even talking about talk with no substance.” He shook his head in mock disappointment.

Their banter was quick and natural. Seeing and hearing them together while lazing in bed well after the sun rose was making him nostalgic. For a long-ago simpler time when he and Ryuzo had done the same. Lazing together after staying up all night, talking, laughing, arguing, and counting the stars. Being woken up by the sun in their eyes and arguing about whose fault it would be when they were late to sword practice with his uncle. Though it never mattered who they blamed, Ryuzo always seemed to be the one at fault. Jin had accepted it then, as their roles and the order of things. But now, having again made friends, actual friends, with other common born people and looking back at the terrible choices he’d had to make to rid the island of invaders Jin couldn’t help but feel his uncle and the alleged order of things was wrong.

He’d been so deep in contemplation he’d missed whatever the horse trader, Naogo, he reminded himself, had said but he was now being elbowed in the ribs, repeatedly. “Uh, I agree?” Jin shook his head to clear his mind.

“You also want to know when you’re leaving us and where you’re going?” Tadasuke asked, his tone flat and sarcastic.

“Uhhhh.” Jin had no response, he’d been caught.

Naogo took the opportunity to tease him, “You are a lightweight Jin.”

Again Jin chose overcompensation to overcome embarrassment “I had one and a half bottles, you only had half.”

“I’m not used to the good stuff!” Naogo protested.

“The cheap stuff’s more potent, you’re not helping yourself.” His lover quipped.

“Whose side are you on?” Naogo puffed like a discomfited hen.

Jin chuckled, he’d missed easy conversations with other men. Taka had been fun but he’d kept a professional distance. Jin regretted that, now that they’d never have a chance to bridge that gap. Before he could get too far into grief again he was distracted by his name.

“Jin, truly-” Tadasuke leaned to make eye contact, similar to what Naogo had done last night; these two were a good pair Jin mused.

“You’re picking Jin?” Naogo deadpanned.

“I’m changing the topic. Jin, if you’re ever this way again you’re free to sleep with us. A tent is much more comfortable than an open sided shelter or under the stars, at least until the snows stop.”

“Thank you for your kind offer, but I don’t think I’ll be through this way again for a while. And this camp seems…” Slipshod? Slapdash? A mess? “temporary.” was the politest way Jin could put it. The camps were in rougher shape now than when the Mongols had been invading, mostly because only those without a place to return to were using them now. Another reminder of how the way things should be was wrong; during war they’d been one people, now they were back to rigid social strata.

“We’ll be moving too, but still in the area.” Tadasuke explained, “The people in this camp are going to be returning to the farmstead to the south. As long as the new samurai lords allow us to claim the abandoned homes and haven’t given everything away to their brought retinues.”

“I’m sure they’ll be allowed to return home.” Jin said.

“You’re too trusting.” Tadasuke replied, “But assuming we are, that’s where we’ll be, and once we’re settled you can have a proper room in a guest hose instead of a tent. Or even Naogo’s spot in the bed if he’s away!” Tadasuke was clearly Joking now, but Naogo still shoved him over as if he was offended.

Jin brushed off his blush from being invited over in more ways than one with a plausible excuse for why that would never happen, “If there are new samurai families overseeing the land, I doubt that will be possible.”

“So, you’re going to let yourself be driven out like you did to the last of the Mongols?” Naogo countered.

Jin shrugged, “I was thinking its best for a ghost to fade away. It’s what ghosts do.”

“Sometimes they linger though, especially vengeful ones, like if the farmers rebellion to the north was to get wiped out.” Naogo leaned forward, looking serious despite his continued lack of cloths.

“Yuna’s talking sense in to them, they won’t be around to be wiped out.” Jin nodded, he was sure of Yuna’s abilities. And as much as he was a folk hero, she was an everyday hero to the everyday people of Tsushima who’d helped repel the invasion. She’d even been the one to start the legend of the ghost of Tsushima.

“Yuna?” Naogo asked, still serious.

“Who is this Yuna? Naogo, you might have competition for your samurai boy toy.” Tadasuke was elbowing his lover repeatedly. If Jin didn’t know they were lover’s he’d have guessed they were brothers, and that brought back memories of Ryuzo yet again.

“There’s no competition. With you and Hanami, I’ve got my hands full. No offense lord Sakai.” Naogo was again pushing Tadsuke away despite his attempts to turn it into a wrestling match.

“No, I understand, you only want me for my body.” Jin was feeling comfortable enough to joke with them; maybe this bringing back memories of Ryuzo wasn’t a bad thing, maybe that comfortable familiarity was something he could have again. He sighed, “I am thinking of joining her though. I trust her with the locals. But I don’t trust what the mainlanders will do to her, and I know she’ll stay to the last dealing with stubborn fools even though she hates to suffer them.”

“You like her?” Tadasuke made the question more of a sing song insinuation.

“What are you a teenager?” Naogo huffed from where Tadsuke had succeeded in starting a wrestling match and pinned him to the bedroll.

“Romance is sweet.” Tadsuke explained before he was thrown off and forced to sit normally, “You know his wife ‘marriage interview’-ed me, but you don’t know he took me on a sunset horseback ride to the beach to propose afterwards. There were tatamis, and flowers, and sweet seaweed with onigiri and-” Tadasuke was interrupted by his stomach growling.

Jin was also wincing with hunger pangs from the described feast. “I think we were talking about breakfast earlier?”

“Yes, we’ve got okayu, or we could splurge on meat with eggs.” Tadasuke winked at Jin, and since Jin finally felt comfortable enough around them, he got a pillow to his face in response.

Naogo laughed along with Jin as they all got dressed. With more comfortable joking and fewer innuendos they settled on okayu, and Tadasuke’s punishment for being a terrible tease was to cook. The sun was past its zenith by the time Jin set out, but considering he was a wanted man getting a late start and traveling through the night served his plans just fine. Kaze was filling out nicely on Naogo’s medicines and spring grass, he’d be able to match the pace Jin set as he went north once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okayu is a rice porridge. It's literally just rice and water but it can have assorted toppings added for flavor.
> 
> Shout out to my beta reader who is unnamed for now.


End file.
